Candy Cane Spaceship
January 14, 2025 by Jane Thornton
Filed under Christian Life, Family Focus
By Jane Thornton
“Oh, Mommy, it’s what I always just wanted!”
This gushing exclamation from my three-year-old son melted my heart and that of every family member in the room. A repeat of that ringing approbation became our goal over the next few sets of gift-giving occasions. So, when Matthew, with his unique and mysterious imagination, announced that he wanted a candy cane spaceship for his birthday, creative genius throughout the clan went to work.
Phone calls were exchanged. Gentle inquisitions probed his fanciful mind. The usual answer, though, lacked detail: “You know, a candy cane spaceship.” Aunt Nanny, natural-born artist, took up the challenge. With papier–mâché, glue, and paint, she created a masterpiece. The resulting red and white striped saucer, with a clear plastic dome for a bridge, perfectly-sized for a newly four boy, awed everyone who saw it. Except Matthew.
The Call Is Holy
January 7, 2025 by Norma Vera
Filed under Christian Life, Family Focus
By Norma Vera
Saying “Father if it is your will, remove this cup from me; never – the-less not my will but yours be done.” And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly. Luke 22:42, 44
I recently read an article that talked about how weak and emotionally wounded the Church is today. The world is full of hurting people even though we are the most advanced and richest generation that ever lived.
We are far from being anything like the First Church. The power, courage, and love they had for Christ, was unprecedented to anything we have today. Their passion to live and die for Him was the paramount cry of their heart. Hebrews 11 gives an inside view of what they were like.
What will it take to transform the Church to its former glory? I believe it will take absolute surrender. We ask, how do we do that? It is not what we do but what the Holy Spirit does in us and through us.
The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year
January 1, 2025 by Teresa Lusk
Filed under Christian Life, Family Focus
By Teresa Lusk
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Or is it? Job loss, foreclosures, illness, depression over the economy, and other circumstances hover over many families. Parents are wondering if they will be able to gift their kids abundantly. Having friends over to show off the new Christmas tree theme may be a thing of the past for now. Eating turkey till the tummy nearly pops will not be possible, a very important tradition not feasible this year.
Ask yourself, where does the joy really lie for me and my family? In gift-giving? In gift–receiving? For most of us, yes. From the time of creation, God has been a giving God. First, He gave life to the earth and the skies and all that lives in them. Then, He gifted us with the first human entity, Adam. God then gave Eve to him, again, a gift. Finally, the human race expanded a fine present to our world.
Birthing Nations
December 19, 2024 by Rachael Sales
Filed under Family Focus
By Rachael Sales
As the mother of eight children, six of which I naturally birthed, I am always interested in hearing the testimonies of the birthing room experience. As an avid supporter and participant of supernatural childbirthing, it never ceases to amaze me how God births life in and through the very creation that He birthed and that He paid the price on Calvary for it to be painless. There is nothing more beautiful (after experiencing new birth in Christ) than watching a child take its first breath on this side of it all. For this reason, I count it a privilege and a joy to gather the stories of wives and mothers, and provide a platform for them to be heard. Amidst the piles of laundry, the late night feedings and the little bumps and bruises, their voices cry out declaring that God is both able and willing to keep. Consider the following snippet of the labor room experience from wife and mother Ashleigh Phillips:
It’s Showtime
During the birth of our first baby, Morgan, we found out that she was faced the wrong way, and so she wasn’t coming down the canal. She was face up when she should have been face down. We tried every birthing position imaginable to get her to turn over – squatting, hanging on the birthing bar, you name it, but she never turned around. I had gotten to the point that I didn’t care what anybody thought. People were walking in and out of the room, and I just didn’t care. At that point I knew God was there and it was me and Him walking this thing through. It’s amazing when those types of thing happen causing you to become so vulnerable. I believe that we should always be like that – at the point of not caring what anybody thinks.
With A Gentle Spirit
December 8, 2024 by Marty Norman
Filed under Family Focus
By Marty Norman
Planks are big and need to be dealt with, especially when they are large, glaring, and stuck in our own eyes. Splinters are small but oh so much easier to extract in comparison.
Recently I was in a Bible study where a friend approached the teacher, concerned that he had misspelled the word transparency on his flip chart. Not one to be shy, she thought he ought to know. Thus followed a detailed discussion about how easy it is to see the splinter in a neighbor’s eye yet how hard to see the plank in our own. We agreed that we rarely see our own mistakes, especially in written form, but oh how they jump off the page on someone else’s paper.
